{"id":1545,"date":"2022-02-02T12:56:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T17:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redchairblogs.wpengine.com\/holymoly\/?p=1545"},"modified":"2022-02-02T12:56:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T17:56:28","slug":"answering-the-hard-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/2022\/02\/02\/answering-the-hard-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering the “Hard” Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

My spouse and I have taken youth to summer camp since 1985. In 1993 we found Passport Camps. Throughout the years Passport Camps had a feature in the evening worship service titled \u201cQuestion of the Day.\u201d Camp staff would interview campers throughout the day to glean their response to the day\u2019s question, compile a video of responses, and show the video during the service. Regardless of the year, or the question, responses typically fell into two categories: profound and just plain silly. Both responses were appropriate and both were applauded as church groups cheered on their fellow youth group members and marveled at their ability to answer questions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years and even in different contexts, I found similar responses to questions. Depending on the question, and the experience with the question, responses varied from profound to silly. (If I had a dime for every \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d response, I could be bankrolling the university.) What I came to understand is that \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d typically means \u201cI need more time to process\u201d or \u201cI need to get my words together so I don\u2019t embarrass myself,\u201d or even \u201cWow. You are asking my opinion? No one has ever asked my opinion before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Being asked for your opinion is different from answering a question. Questions have quantitative or qualitative responses. Opinions are personal and vulnerable responses undergirded by the hope the opinion will be heard. Speaking out of a personal and vulnerable context is not easy. It is much easier to be defensive and reactive. Much easier to provide quantitative and qualitative data. Much easier to say, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d or remain quiet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Every two years our university participates in a NSSE Survey. The survey asks questions about the student experience at University of Lynchburg. Essentially, the instrument is about belonging. Assessing belonging (or how one feels connected) matters. For universities and colleges, responses impact morale, graduation rates, student success, retention, and recruitment. The survey asks students for their opinion, and the expectation of students (and rightly so) is that the survey data will be taken into consideration and not dismissed. Optimally, the data is used to inform change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2022 NSSE survey will open towards the end of February and I am hoping student participation is extraordinary. While I appreciate the NSSE Survey and others like it, what if we\u00a0 normalize asking students for their opinions, particularly about belonging? What if we model language by sharing our connection, our Lynchburg belonging story, with students? What if we encourage questions and cheer students on as they wrestle with what it means to honestly and vulnerably offer their opinion? Sure, sometimes the responses might be silly, or perhaps impossible, but sometimes student responses could be the catalyst that changes everything.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharing my opinion as a fan of hard questions,
\n<\/span>Katrina<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My spouse and I have taken youth to summer camp since 1985. In 1993 we found Passport Camps. Throughout the years Passport Camps had a feature in the evening worship service titled \u201cQuestion of the Day.\u201d Camp staff would interview …<\/p>\n

Answering the “Hard” Questions<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-katrina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1QIf6-oV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lynchburg.edu\/holymoly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}